HR IS THE only business function to express a preference for global policies and procedures whilst at the same time feeling their primary loyalty is to local colleagues, recent research has found
HR IS THE only business function to express a preference for global policies and procedures whilst at the same time feeling their primary loyalty is to local colleagues, recent research has found.
Within HR many activities are rooted with an understanding of local client groups, working within national legislation and to meet the needs of the majority of employees.
But HR professionals are increasingly required to deliver global projects and support increasingly international lines of business such as functional reporting, career developmentand day to day activities cross distance, cultures and time zones.
“To deliver effective performance, organisations need to work hard to create and maintain shared vision and values amongst the people who work for them,” said Kevan Hall, chairman of remote and cross-cultural training firm Global Integration, which conducted the research.
“However, loyalties are naturally local and global solutions may get in the way of local flexibility. We have to find the right balance in order to maintain a sense of community at the right level in the organisation.
“Only then will people want to succeed, enjoy working for a successful organisation, and exhibit the discretionary behaviours that continue to build that success,” he said.
Speaking at a recent Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) conference, Hall said pressures to globalise continue and this requires employers to make the transition from local to regional or global.
“It is tempting to create organisation-wide structures and programs to deal with this but in reality there are very different groups with different needs.”
The challenge is to be selective and focus on how to achieve the shared vision and values and to develop new ways of working rather than just repeating what worked in the past, Hall said.
At the top level, he said some organisations need a truly global workforce, which can move around freely from country to country. “At the local level, we may prefer local loyalty and local solutions.”
In the “matrixed middle”, Hall said, people have to manage the balance and trade-offs on a daily basis, and it is these people who need new skills and support.
“By adapting to these different needs, employers will speed up the pace of strategically important international projects and teams and increase motivation.”
Fran Wilson, CIPD international manager, added that employers must think of the organisation as a whole and should create policies and practices that can be adopted across the globe. “This will enable employees to move from country to country and help to create a genuinely global workforce.”
She said it makes good business sense to employ global policies and procedures, pointing to CIPD research which found a clear link between strongly shared values and high commitment.
Where strongly shared values can be demonstrated, she said people are more likely to be satisfied, displaying higher levels of organisational commitment, lower quit rates, greater customer satisfaction, and lower levels of dissent or dissatisfaction over levels of pay.
